Stainless Steel Materials and Aluminium Update

BHP Billiton announced today that its Stainless Steel Materials and Aluminium Customer Sector Groups (CSGs) will consolidate into a single CSG to be named Aluminium and Nickel. The new CSG will be headquartered in Perth, Australia, under the leadership of Glenn Kellow as President (currently President Stainless Steel Materials).

The Aluminium and Nickel CSG will include all current nickel and aluminium assets in the portfolio: Nickel West and Worsley (both Australia), Cerro Matoso (Colombia), Mozal (Mozambique), Hillside and Bayside (South Africa), and two non-operated joint ventures, Alumar and Mineracao Rio do Norte (both Brazil).

BHP Billiton Chief Executive Aluminium, Nickel and Corporate Development, Alberto Calderon said: “Despite the current challenges, BHP Billiton is committed to Aluminium and Nickel as commodities that may benefit from later phases of economic development in the emerging economies.

“However, individually, Aluminium and Nickel are small divisions relative to the other businesses in BHP Billiton. The combination of these into a single business unit will provide appropriate scale within the BHP Billiton portfolio, as well as simplifying the functional structure of the business to assist in our efforts to make it a more efficient and competitive organisation.”